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100:, or the Internet Oracle website, and it is sent to another user (another "incarnation" of the Oracle) who may answer it. Meanwhile, the original questioner is also sent a question to answer. All exchanges are conducted through a central distribution system which makes all users anonymous. Unanswered questions are returned to the queue after a day or two. Users may also request ("askme") unanswered questions without posing their own.
316:, downloaded Huttar's code that same year. He deployed it as the Usenet Oracle on a university server and it became popular. Ray Moody, a graduate student at Purdue University, enhanced the program to allow access via e-mail. This allowed anyone on the Internet to use the Oracle. Kinzler installed this version on another Indiana University computer, where it resided until 2014. It was renamed the Internet Oracle in March 1996.
153:" humor is also common, though less common than in the early years of the Oracle's existence, when fewer casual home computer users had Internet access. Most Oracularities are significantly longer than the above example, and they sometimes take the form of rambling narratives, poems, top-ten lists, spoofing of
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Now, the forum is basically about asking silly questions to get silly answers; consequently questions meant for libelous intent, questions of a sexual nature, and serious questions are not apt to this forum (although an exception may be made when a serious question is given a particularly silly or
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funny answer). An especially adept incarnation may occasionally deal with such questions in keeping with the forum—absurdly, perhaps masking the truth, perhaps framing the truth from an absurd viewpoint, or perhaps resorting to nothing but demanding an absurd tribute.
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Traditionally, questions to the Oracle open with a suitable grovel such as "High and Mighty Oracle, please answer my most humble question," although grovels are often very creative and can be very long, or even part of the
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Kinzler has since made further enhancements, the most prominent being the "priests" choosing
Oracularities for irregularly published digests. He provides a server to host the Oracle program, its web site, and archives.
203:"). This is a reference to "The Woodchuck Question": "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?", which in the early days of the Usenet Oracle, was over-asked to the point of being a cliché.
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was told about
Langston's Oracle by a friend at college. Not knowing where to obtain a copy, he wrote his own version of the program, which only worked when users were logged into the same computer. Huttar posted the
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An assorted mythos of recurring characters—or in-jokes—has accumulated over the years. These include the worthless High Priest Zadoc (sometimes with an assistant named Kendai), the Oracle's girlfriend Lisa the
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A complex Oracle mythos has also evolved around the figure of an omniscient, anthropomorphic, geeky deity and a host of grovelling priests and attendants. Other staples in conversation with the Oracle include:
173:) is earned when the Oracle is irritated. *ZOT*s are something like lightning strikes and are usually fatal. Unscrupulous participants will sometimes administer undeserved *ZOT*s. The particular word
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and a
Cadillac." This segment, often called the "YOTO line" (for "You owe the Oracle") or tribute, often refers to objects that are related, in a punny way, to the answer they are a part of.
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The
Oracularities are compiled into periodic digests by a team of volunteer "priests", who read every Oracularity and select what they consider the best. These are posted to the
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Mentioning DMP, Dumpie, or "the cooler incident" will usually result in a response with details on how to profit by helping with a transfer of a large sum of money from an
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questions are a sure way to earn a *ZOT*. The Oracle will often censor the word "woodchuck" as "w..dch.ck" or simply refer to it obliquely ("
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time-sharing system. He then distributed the program via the PSL Games Tape to Unix installations around the world until 1988.
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Answers from the Oracle traditionally contain a request for payment such as "You owe the Oracle a
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is credited with the initial idea for an Oracle program. In 1976, he wrote one which ran at the
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Sewell, David R. "The
Internet Oracle: Virtual Authors and Network Community."
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A completed question-and-answer pair is called an "Oracularity".
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games, or anything else that can be put into plain text.
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A user sends a question ("tellme") to the Oracle via
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The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
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395:"Well Known Mailing Lists - The Internet Oracle"
401:. 2 September 2006. Accessed 14 September 2006.
308:Steve Kinzler, who was a graduate student and
305:to the Usenet group alt.sources in August.
238:Administration, Digests, and the Priesthood
111:A representative (and famous) exchange is:
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169:(administered with the Staff of Zot, see
66:Learn how and when to remove this message
183:Alternatively, it may be an allusion to
29:This article includes a list of general
131:And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
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149:references and witty wordplay. "
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85:) is an effort at collective
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354:www.pieceoftheuniverse.com
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262:There is a usenet group,
350:"rec.humor.oracle.d FAQ"
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264:news:rec.humor.oracle.d
258:Usenet discussion group
187:'s 1947 novel entitled
81:(historically known as
50:more precise citations.
287:Harvard Science Center
201:rodent of unusual size
310:system administrator
413:The Internet Oracle
393:Stewart, William.
155:interactive fiction
79:The Internet Oracle
372:Stewart, "History"
314:Indiana University
268:tired old in-jokes
219:account in Nigeria
126:> Why is a cow?
121:Your question was:
83:The Usenet Oracle
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433:Internet culture
388:First Monday 2.6
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390:(June 1997)
303:source code
298:Lars Huttar
234:figure Og.
48:introducing
422:Categories
380:References
359:2024-03-02
246:newsgroup
31:references
296:In 1989,
207:question.
197:Woodchuck
324:See also
91:Socratic
56:May 2010
278:Origins
274:topic.
232:caveman
44:improve
428:Usenet
244:Usenet
98:e-mail
33:, but
336:Notes
190:Zotz!
175:*ZOT*
167:*ZOT*
107:Style
87:humor
291:Unix
180:B.C.
171:LART
151:Geek
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312:at
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147:Zen
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165:A
138:Mu
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